But I'm glad Lou made an exception after losing Zach and didn't just stand on failing principle.

What failing principle?! God, some of you act like Lou just constantly loses guys left and right. It happens! All GMs lose players! In case you haven't noticed, he's kept some guys too, but no one ever talks about that. Only the guys who walk. And quite a few of the ones who did leave didn't exactly pan out for their new teams.

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THE NHL MUST LOVE THE DEVILS - from who else? A RANGER fan![Mark Messier]: A big, bald attention whore with a stupid Easter Island-lookin face. - from who else? DaneykoIsGod!

Even when Marty comes back maybe Larry should put Clemmensen to be on the goal during the shootouts.Can the coach do that ? Switch the goalies 5 seconds to go in overtime? - Most priceless quote ever posted on a message board.

Martin Brodeur: THE MOST ALL-TIME WINS!, 12 straight seasons of 30+ wins, 3 Stanley Cups, 4 Vezina Trophies, and zero respect from too many so-called Devils "fans" who are either too young or too bandwagon to remember the much darker days of Sean Burke, Craig Billington, Bob Sauve, Alain Chevrier, and the talented but overwhelmed Chico Resch, among many others.

It's easy to support a great player when he's playing at his very best. It takes a true fan to support that same player during those rare moments and stretches when he's not. Babe Ruth went 0-4 some games, and sometimes Wayne Gretzky was held pointless. There may be such a thing as greatness, but no such thing as absolute perfection every single night.

#30 FOREVER!

20 out of 1,946 njdevs.com members agree: CR1976 is the Most Knowledgable Poster of 2008! Victory is mine...oh yes, victory is mine!

What failing principle?! God, some of you act like Lou just constantly loses guys left and right. It happens! All GMs lose players! In case you haven't noticed, he's kept some guys too, but no one ever talks about that. Only the guys who walk. And quite a few of the ones who did leave didn't exactly pan out for their new teams.

I think it is more of people are pissed that Lou seemingly waits till the last second to start negotiating with these guys instead of resigning them in advance like you see a lot of other teams do. If news would have gotten out that Lou was negotiating with Zach all of last year before losing him to the Wild, I think the sting would have been less and it would be easier to accept that Lou tried his best and Zach just wasn't interested or got a better offer.

Just the fact that Lou signed someone this far in advance of the expiration of his current contract is bewildering and a little refreshing even if the numbers are a tad steep.

Probably overpaid by 500-750k and got 1-2 more years than he should have, but he could have gotten more dough on the open market.

If you look at points and advanced statistics, he looks similar to Patrice Bergeron. I believe Bergeron is marginally better, but I think they're in the same sphere. It's just that Zajac doesn't get the national recognition .

"Quite frankly, all the players are getting paid too much and all the contracts are too long," general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "But if you want to compete in this market and you want to win, there are some things you have to do."

I think it is more of people are pissed that Lou seemingly waits till the last second to start negotiating with these guys instead of resigning them in advance like you see a lot of other teams do. If news would have gotten out that Lou was negotiating with Zach all of last year before losing him to the Wild, I think the sting would have been less and it would be easier to accept that Lou tried his best and Zach just wasn't interested or got a better offer.

Just the fact that Lou signed someone this far in advance of the expiration of his current contract is bewildering and a little refreshing even if the numbers are a tad steep.

Happy Zajac is going to be here a long time though.

Not attacking you here, but with our fanbase sometimes, it's as though every other team "plays 60 minutes"...except for ours. Or that other GMs are signing their stars ahead of time...except the Devils. I can think of two teams that signed their stars ahead of time, and their fans being very excited about it at the time. Ottawa and Tampa Bay. How'd that work out for those teams?

I don't know, Lous had his ups and downs, and I think the '10-'11 season was particularly hard on him, but I think the guy has earned the benefit of the doubt. It's just that sometimes our fanbase is so friggin' critical...like every GM, he makes mistakes, and some moves pan out and some don't, but I don't think he any more to learn about his job, and I don't think his re-signing Zajac has anything to do with him suddenly saying "Geez, I've really been fvcking up through the years with UFA, let me do something right for once!"

Edited by Colorado Rockies 1976, 16 January 2013 - 05:00 PM.

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THE NHL MUST LOVE THE DEVILS - from who else? A RANGER fan![Mark Messier]: A big, bald attention whore with a stupid Easter Island-lookin face. - from who else? DaneykoIsGod!

Even when Marty comes back maybe Larry should put Clemmensen to be on the goal during the shootouts.Can the coach do that ? Switch the goalies 5 seconds to go in overtime? - Most priceless quote ever posted on a message board.

Martin Brodeur: THE MOST ALL-TIME WINS!, 12 straight seasons of 30+ wins, 3 Stanley Cups, 4 Vezina Trophies, and zero respect from too many so-called Devils "fans" who are either too young or too bandwagon to remember the much darker days of Sean Burke, Craig Billington, Bob Sauve, Alain Chevrier, and the talented but overwhelmed Chico Resch, among many others.

It's easy to support a great player when he's playing at his very best. It takes a true fan to support that same player during those rare moments and stretches when he's not. Babe Ruth went 0-4 some games, and sometimes Wayne Gretzky was held pointless. There may be such a thing as greatness, but no such thing as absolute perfection every single night.

#30 FOREVER!

20 out of 1,946 njdevs.com members agree: CR1976 is the Most Knowledgable Poster of 2008! Victory is mine...oh yes, victory is mine!

THE NHL MUST LOVE THE DEVILS - from who else? A RANGER fan![Mark Messier]: A big, bald attention whore with a stupid Easter Island-lookin face. - from who else? DaneykoIsGod!

Even when Marty comes back maybe Larry should put Clemmensen to be on the goal during the shootouts.Can the coach do that ? Switch the goalies 5 seconds to go in overtime? - Most priceless quote ever posted on a message board.

Martin Brodeur: THE MOST ALL-TIME WINS!, 12 straight seasons of 30+ wins, 3 Stanley Cups, 4 Vezina Trophies, and zero respect from too many so-called Devils "fans" who are either too young or too bandwagon to remember the much darker days of Sean Burke, Craig Billington, Bob Sauve, Alain Chevrier, and the talented but overwhelmed Chico Resch, among many others.

It's easy to support a great player when he's playing at his very best. It takes a true fan to support that same player during those rare moments and stretches when he's not. Babe Ruth went 0-4 some games, and sometimes Wayne Gretzky was held pointless. There may be such a thing as greatness, but no such thing as absolute perfection every single night.

#30 FOREVER!

20 out of 1,946 njdevs.com members agree: CR1976 is the Most Knowledgable Poster of 2008! Victory is mine...oh yes, victory is mine!

Not attacking you here, but with our fanbase sometimes, it's as though every other team "plays 60 minutes"...except for ours. Or that other GMs are signing their stars ahead of time...except the Devils. I can think of two teams that signed their stars ahead of time, and their fans being very excited about it at the time. Ottawa and Tampa Bay. How'd that work out for those teams?

I don't know, Lous had his ups and downs, and I think the '10-'11 season was particularly hard on him, but I think the guy has earned the benefit of the doubt. It's just that sometimes our fanbase is so friggin' critical...like every GM, he makes mistakes, and some moves pan out and some don't, but I don't think he any more to learn about his job, and I don't think his re-signing Zajac has anything to do with him suddenly saying "Geez, I've really been fvcking up through the years with UFA, let me do something right for once!"

Well whether Lou signs these players is one thing, but I think a lot of it has to do with his methods. Even when other teams re-sign with their players on or about July 1st, it usually follows with a statement how they have been working on the deal for months. With Lou you always hear players saying " I never heard anything about it until the season ended." Then Lou has to figure out this stuff in about 1-3 months along with the draft. This seemingly perception of Lou doing nothing until the last minute is is totally based on feeling and perception than anything concrete given how little Lou talks about what he is doing internally.

But stepping back and looking at all this on a level field, the only two players that the Devils lost in the last 4-5 years that were of any big relevence were Zach following by Gionta. I might be missing a player or two but me forgetting just shows how much I miss them.

Not attacking you here, but with our fanbase sometimes, it's as though every other team "plays 60 minutes"...except for ours. Or that other GMs are signing their stars ahead of time...except the Devils. I can think of two teams that signed their stars ahead of time, and their fans being very excited about it at the time. Ottawa and Tampa Bay. How'd that work out for those teams?

I don't know, Lous had his ups and downs, and I think the '10-'11 season was particularly hard on him, but I think the guy has earned the benefit of the doubt. It's just that sometimes our fanbase is so friggin' critical...like every GM, he makes mistakes, and some moves pan out and some don't, but I don't think he any more to learn about his job, and I don't think his re-signing Zajac has anything to do with him suddenly saying "Geez, I've really been fvcking up through the years with UFA, let me do something right for once!"

To add to this, UFAs are almost always a bad bet, it's just a question of whether you can do better with prospects or other players in your organization.

Well whether Lou signs these players is one thing, but I think a lot of it has to do with his methods. Even when other teams re-sign with their players on or about July 1st, it usually follows with a statement how they have been working on the deal for months.

Well if it isn't obvious by now Lou's able to keep everything under lock and key I don't know when it would be obvious...today just proves yet again Lou's still an anomaly. What other organization would be able to in this day and age have the GM literally break the news of a big re-signing like this in the middle of camp, without even the remote hint of a leak beforehand?

Edited by NJDevs4978, 16 January 2013 - 05:30 PM.

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"The Devils have high standards, that's the difference. We have a standard to live up to every year, and a couple of teams in our area don't have the standards we do." - Pat Burns

The New Jersey Devils win Stanley Cups everywhere:-NHL record for most road wins in the playoffs - 10-1 in '95 and 10-2 in '00-NHL record for most home wins in the playoffs - 12-1 in '03

$5.75 is a bit high in my estimation. Also, giving a guy 8 years is also a bit excessive. However, publicly we know the "intangibles" that Zajac brings. I imagine behind the scenes there are many more intangibles that Lou knows about as well.

I think Trav's cap hit is somewhere in the vicinity if not a little lower than that of Jordan Staal's, so that should be just about right. Although, pound for pound I think Jordan has the edge in terms of overall ability.

I personally think this is a great deal. Maybe he is getting paid more than he should, but I think he wud have gotten over 6 million had he gone to free agency. There is a lot about Zajac that makes him so valuable to the devils that some people might not notice. To merge two biggest things are that he has chemistry with kovy. It was very hard to find a good fit for kovy. And second Zajac has shown that he is pretty clutch. I would say more so than a lot of players on the team. I can think of 2 playoff overtime winners and 2 extra round shootouts winners in big games off of the top of my head. Add that to the fact that he is our number one center who can play in any situation and I think 5.75 is a fair number.